Report recommends femicide be made a criminal offence, tagging of predators on bail

Femicide should be made a criminal offence or an aggravating offence of homicide, a new report on femicide in Malta released today is recommending.

The country report compiled by the University of Malta and the Women's Rights Foundation also recommends the use of GPS monitoring for predators out on bail and in cases where a suspended sentence has been awarded and restraining orders have been issued. The report says electronic tagging can reduce the risk of femicide.

“Maltese society and culture are still heavily shaped by patriarchy,” the report says, citing that there is a link between the way men and women are treated in society and femicide. 

The report adds that while Malta implemented the Istanbul Convention on gender-based violence in 2018, the laws which are currently in place still do not fully protect women who experience domestic violence incidents, and at times, the courts fail to protect women from the perpetrator.

As a result, many victims opt-out of reporting or if they do, many decide to recant. “Behind this behaviour is the background noise of shame, propelling women to obey and to accept the violence being done to them.”

This situation means that many domestic violence cases go untackled and unresolved, laying the ground for possible femicides.

It said that tackling violence against women must come from different directions, taking into account the country's culture and harmful attitudes, behaviours, and stereotypes in institutions and in individuals and the education system.

“The focus has to be on providing the best multi-agency approach to help victims and their families, whilst targeting the general public through awareness campaigns promoting gender equality, which will spearhead better policies,” the report says.

To this effect, it also recommends that the perpetrator should be removed from the home in cases of domestic violence. “The victim should be awarded immediate and effective protection whilst remaining in the home.”

Further expanding on this, the report says that in the cases where children are involved, the court should refrain from awarding joint custody or access arrangements between the perpetrator and the victim that endangers women’s lives and puts their safety and their children’s at risk.

The report also recommends professionals such as police and front liners should approach all domestic violence cases from a homicide-prevention perspective with a gendered lens and as well as a victim-based view to ensure the safety of victims who are abused.

The report was released 48 hours after the first femicide of the new year happened.

Paulina Dembska was murdered at Sliema’s Independence Garden early on Sunday, 2 January. Her lifeless body was found just below the popular promenade by a passer-by just before 6:30am.

Murder suspect, Abner Aquilina, 20, has not yet been charged as he is being kept under observation for a mental health assessment at Mount Carmel Hospital.

Aquilina's interrogation by the police has been suspended pending clearance from doctors. He is reported to have told police that it was the devil who ordered him to do what he did.

According to reports, the autopsy on Dembska revealed that she was raped and died as a result of suffocation. She had signs of violence on her chest and head.